


The Mystery of the Discount Shawl

by Rose_of_Pollux



Series: Inktober for Writers 2017 [30]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 20:25:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12565500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_of_Pollux/pseuds/Rose_of_Pollux
Summary: In which one man’s secret message is another man’s cat toy.





	The Mystery of the Discount Shawl

**Author's Note:**

> For Prompt 30 of Inktober for Writers: Secret

Illya, who had just spent the last hour wrangling their smoky black Egyptian Mau, Baba Yaga, was very surprised and amused to see Napoleon pondering over a knitted shawl that had been left on his desk.

“Excellent workmanship, is it not?” Illya asked, as he carried their purring cat into the office.

“Yes, it is,” Napoleon said, staring at it with a furrowed brow. “It was here, on the desk, in a Macy’s bag.”

“Indeed?” Illya asked.

“You know what I think?” Napoleon went on.

“Do tell.”

“I think there’s some sort of secret message in this shawl,” Napoleon said. “I’ll bet the knitting is in Morse code or something—long ones for dashes, short ones for dots. There’s a message in here for us.”

“…And what does it say?”

“…A bunch of nonsense letters,” Napoleon sighed. “But there’s obviously a secondary code; give me long enough, and I can figure it out.”

“Let me save you the trouble,” Illya said, suppressing a smirk. “The message is that I am, surprisingly, willing to indulge in your capitalist establishments if it means getting something top-quality for Baba Yaga.”

Napoleon, who had now whipped out a magnifying glass to further inspect the knitting, let the shawl fall on the table in disbelief.

“ _What._ ”

“I bought that shawl.”

“…Let me make sure I understand what happened,” Napoleon said. “You—willingly and under zero duress—walked into Macy’s and purchased that shawl?”

“That is correct.”

“You actually went to Macy’s on your own and bought something—again, on your own!?”

“Will it make you feel any better if I told you that it was on clearance, and, therefore, greatly reduced?”

Napoleon breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes, it does; I was this close to asking for your fingerprints to make sure that it was really Illya Kuryakin I was talking to.”

Illya rolled his eyes.

“I saw an ad for it in the paper this morning; I knew you were already here early, working on that mission report, so I decided to make a detour before I came in. I thought our darling Baba Yaga would appreciate this lining her bed.”

As if to prove him right, the moment he placed Baba Yaga on the desk, she ran on top of the shawl and began to knead at it intently, purring all the while.

“Well, you called that one,” Napoleon said, grinning as he saw how happy the cat was with the soft shawl. “But, ah, next time you decide to go on a Macy’s run, warn me in advance, huh?”

“And miss seeing that look on your face again? I think not!”

Napoleon gave him an indignant look, and Illya couldn’t help but laugh at his partner’s expression. It was a rare moment that Illya laughed like that, and so Napoleon, his heart instantly warmer, didn’t mind one bit.


End file.
